On the Wednesday of MEA weekend, we were very fortunate, through our local collaborative – Zumbro Education District, to have Kevin Honeycutt (@kevinhoneycutt) come to SE MN and present to several school districts. It has been a couple of days since that presentation, and I felt compelled to take some time to reflect on the day!

Honeycutt totally reaffirmed everything I believe in the potential of “school”. Sometimes work in EDU can make things so cloudy, confusing. Sometimes things that shouldn’t matter get in the way of things that should. Sometimes things seem so complex, so unattainable, you even begin to doubt yourself. It’s hard to put into words what the keynote provided me. I needed it. It helped me reconnect with My Why.

The notes, tweets (#zedrocks2015), pics (selfies) etc do not do this keynote justice. Kevin shared many stories of how he inspired his students to rise above problems and challenges. Stories where he was able to connect with students and engage them through use of authentic and relevant learning experiences. His title”Tools and Tactics in the 21st Century” may have led one to think workshop was going to be about technology (unfortunately still viewed as extra in many schools) but instead this was about students and learning and the endless opportunities we have to connect with them and inspire them! And what was exciting? Our entire staff was there! If anyone left that room – uninspired – they need to seriously have an edu “soul selfie” reality check. I heard so much feedback from staff ready to put themselves “out there” for the sake of our kids. All kids. The energy in the room was awesome. I was so engaged, hours seemed like minutes.

I have been at the TIES conference (MN Tech Conference) with a small group of teachers through similar keynotes. Simon Sinek, Sir Ken Robinson, Tony Wagner, Yong Zhao. This was just as inspiring as all of those talks – with a couple of exceptions:

These stories came directly from the classroom – Kevin’s classroom. He shared stories of self perseverance and grit both personally, professionally as an educator. Because of this, and his belief in ALL students, he made an incredible impact on kids… his students. What he shared is obtainable. Where there is a will, there is a way!

Everyone (my teachers and administrators) was in the room! HOORAY! Thanks ZED!

Take aways for me –

We can’t afford to have “secret geniuses” in our classrooms. We have so much talent. So much talent that we can learn from right in the walls of our schools. I sincerely believe, in every room, every teacher has talent they can bring to the table! Yet some teachers are fearful of sharing. Many times fearful of sharing with their own peers, their own teams. Many times the “crazy ones” (Kevin referred to – see video below) are left to quietly innovate in their classrooms. Why? I honestly think it’s a mindset issue. Instead of feeling threatened by the success of others – Shouldnt we be inspired to learn from one another? And to the educators who feel they have no one to turn to, lets talk about helping you create your personal learning network (PLN). There is a whole lot of crazies out there just waiting to support you and celebrate your work! (Including this crazy – @jenhegna)

Administrators and Teachers need to spread (and be supported/encouraged) their messages and stories of what is working with kids. On top of that – add the student voice to these successes and people will listen. We need to get our parents talking, our communities talking because politicians don’t get it and because they are policy makers they drastically need to be educated! Spreading these message of great teaching – has never been easier. Within minutes – anyone of us can publish a story. Anyone can start a movement!

The last take away was “we need to bend to system to fit our kids, not bend kids to fit our system”. There is a lot of depth in that quote. What are the passions and talents of our kids? How can we connect those to curriculum? There should not be a one shot one way of showing what kids know. Our kids have incredible talents and passions (that we can hopefully cultivate to talents). Let’s make learning real and relevant for them. Killer App of the 21st century? Learning to Love to Learn!

Our district administrative team was at a leadership training today with several districts from MN. Towards the end the day, We watched Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” video. It had been a while since I had seen it, but good to reflect upon the vision of our district.

As a homework assignment, we were to reflect on our why. Why are we in the positions were are in? Why do we come to work everyday? And what is our why (vision) for education?

Below is a few things that drive me. That I believe to my core….

Foster self-directed learners who persevere through difficulties.

Engage learners in authentic tasks to create authentic products for an authentic audience.

Develop student leaders with global and empathetic view of the world who actively act upon problems we face today and tomorrow.

Personalize the education of our children to meet core curriculum as well as their passions and interests.

Create a culture of shared leadership and learning in our organization’s system to provide 1-4 that engages all stakeholders.

A graphic of My Why…

I know this probably sounds like a lot of fluff but this keeps me up at night. My why keeps me coming to work even when times get tough and it would so much easier to quit. As a tech director, you would think I would focus on technology – and trust me – I do have a passion for tech, but it has taken me years to realize that focus is not about technology – rather focus on those relevant tasks and let technology amplify….

Amplify learning

Amplify student voice/choice

Amplify our students’ opportunities to make a positive impact in our world.

Over the next couple of weeks our leadership team is leaving room on our weekly agenda to discuss DIY PD with twitter as well as sharing our district’s story using social media. What is our brand? Who is telling our story? How does social media impact our story? What does my digital footprint say about me as a professional?

To start, I sent a short google form and asked team members to share their professional interests and current twitter use. I took the time and selected hashtags that would be relevant to them. As for their Twitter use (below) I could care less if someone is a beginner… this isn’t an evaluative question – this is a question to guide learning. My goal – to get all of our team at a level 3.

1 – Beginner – I am fairly new to twitter and I may know some features, but not all features. It still is a little bit of a mystery to me.

2 – Developing – I know the basics of twitter. I can follow, retweet, tweet, reply, send pictures. Hashtags may still be a little of a mystery to me. I understand there is potential to support my growth – I am just not sure I am there yet.

3 – Proficient – I have a personal learning network that is tailored to my needs. I not only listen and learn, but contribute back to my network. I use twitter on a regular basis to support my growth and use it to showcase the passions and talents of others.

4 – Innovating – I can provide PD around Twitter. Twitter is just part of my DNA

5 Stages of Twitter Use

Brad Gustafson’s post “For the Kids” is an excellent way to start a social media conversation as well as taking some time observing his school’s #GWGREATS hashtag. On a personal note, I love LOVE learning about all of the great things our teachers and more importantly students are learning about. I think its our important for our community as well. While we do have a successful facebook page – it is manned by a few. Twitter and hashtags can allow anyone to contribute!

Here are just a few guiding questions (and a few of my thoughts) to start your conversation with instructional leaders:

How do you personalize your learning ? When one properly creates their personal learning network (PLN), learning can happen when and where you need it. Twitter has become the most positive PLC anyone could ever ask for. I have been fortunate to connect with others (tweeps) to learn personally/professionally but more importantly to create opportunities for our staff and students to learn. This takes time – but so so worth it!

Who will model good use? Whether you like it or not kids, as early as 9 or 10, are signing up for social media accounts. Who do they look for? People they know. I would much rather have my child follow a teacher/admin who models and is developing a good digital footprint than some of the pop who has little or no moral intentions. And even if they do follow those pop stars (you know they will) we can provide opportunities to model good use of technology.

Who is telling our story? Branding (AKA TELLING OUR STORY) our schools is a great way to share with our community about how we learn, share, innovate, and inspire our staff and kids. Its a great way to cross-pollinate ideas from classroom to classroom, building to building or district to district. I also find it great to keep up to date. Just this past weekend I was watching our #cybears hashtag to keep track of the progress of our robotics team! We have a great facebook page – however it is only managed by a few. Using twitter and a hashtag – allows anyone to contribute to our story – including students.

How do we continue to seek talented staff? How do we attract families to our community? As more and more people use social media to interact or learn – they also will use it to shop for jobs and schools. We want families to seek Byron as a great place to educate their kids. We want talented staff in our district. Our schools footprint should be transparent and show why Byron is a great place to work and learn! For school leaders…. our personal profiles should indicate we are great people to work for/with.

Here is an agenda I used the other day. Feel free to tweak and use with your own teams. If you have other ideas -share them out!

Yesterday I attended an excellent webinar called “Designing Agile Learning Spaces” Presented by Bill Selak, Director of Technology and Ilsa Dohmen, CTE Research Designer and 6th Grade Science Teacher at Hillbrook School. While watching, I did a lot of reflecting around our new pk-2 building (Due Fall 2016), our current buildings/classrooms AND our district’s strategic plan. There were many resources provided by the participants and audience that I am including in this post. Side note – I absolutely loved the action research this team did to measure success of these environments!

One of the resources provided by the audience, I especially liked, was the Modern Learning Environment Matrix. I appreciate the guiding questions for each criteria in each phase. Scroll to the very bottom and you some guiding questions for measuring the success of these environments including:

In the history of education, our kids TODAY have more opportunities than ever before to connect, learn, and co create new knowledge with other classrooms, organizations, and experts from around the globe. Through these connections, our kids TODAY, have more opportunities to make an impact in this world and make it a better place for generations to come.

I see a shift in schools, from being solely “dispensers of knowledge” to, instead, helping students learn how THEY can apply their learning in a real world context. I see a shift in schools from focusing solely on test scores – to fostering and measuring the whole child.

In my mind, our challenge is “How do we “do school” efficiently to incorporate these shifts and effectively measure success?” Its going to take a different school system than we have TODAY as we can not continue to add these new shifts to traditional paradigms.

There is never enough time! TODAY, we need to evaluate and challenge how we currently use our time in education. TODAY, we need to create new ways to evaluate and measure student success – beyond the test score. And TODAY, we need leaders in our schools with a mindset to challenge these traditional paradigms to support and create a better, more efficient way to “do school” in order to support every learner.

Who is up for the challenge TODAY?

I will leave you with this quote – tweeted last week by @justintarte that really hit home in my thinking… I hope to use this blog in the weeks to come to share ideas of how we can challenge (and ACT upon) these paradigms. Stay tuned!

After reading A Rich Seam, by Michael Fullen and Maria Langworthy, it is clear to me, that new pedagogies are emerging that blend pedagogy, technology and innovation, and new partnerships between teachers and students. Technology is no longer an addition to pedagogy but instead meld a new pedagogy. Fullan and Langworthy (2014) share the following graphic and explanation:

How New Pedagogies are Different, A Rich Seam, Michael Fullan

“The above diagram helps summarise this discussion of how the new pedagogies and deep learning differ from the model of education that dominated much of the last century. First, this model is new because it aims to achieve deep learning goals that involve the creation and use of new knowledge in the real world. Second, this model becomes manifest in the new learning partnerships that emerge between and among students and teachers when the learning process becomes the focal point for the mutual discovery, creation and use of knowledge. Third, this model responds to and is enabled by digital access inside and outside of schools.”

This work also aligns to a post by Scott McLeod – 3 Big Shifts – in which Scott shares there are 3 shifts that are or need to happen in schools today.

3 Big Shifts, via Scott McLeod, Dangerously Irrelevant

As we think of these shifts in education and/or the new pedagogies that focus on the deep learning – are our leadership roles also shifting to support these new pedagogies? For instance, do technology integrationalists also coach these new instructional models? Do our instructional coaches have discussions about technology? Do we still need separate roles or are these roles becoming a blend as well?

So it leaves me to ask you – Has your leadership role evolved to support these new pedagogies?

If so, how was support given to you? What kind of development did you receive? What resources were you given? What challenges have you overcome?

If not, do you find value in this idea? Or do you think we still need separate people (tech, instruction, data, ect) to support these new learning environments? If you like the idea, what support do you need? What roadblocks would you encounter?

This week will mark the end of yet another 8 week e-Classroom course and 6 more Byron educators will officially be e-Certified. I developed and have been facilitating this for nearly 4 years and am constantly tweaking and fixing the course (via Moodle). The smallest of improvements can have great impact for future participants. One of the things I LOVE about online learning, is that I have a record of discussions, reflections, and feedback. This is critical – not for the participants – but for myself, my facilitation, and my course.

Establishing your eClassroom – Framework

Because of the way I have crafted the eClassroom course, it has provide extra time to focus on very personalized feedback. Last year, I stumbled on Dwecks Mindset book. It has changed my life. I was determine to put extra time and effort to focus on growth mindset techniques in all of my responses. Generally reflections in Mod 1 indicated frustrations, doubt, and fear. This is very natural and module 1 generally requires significant facilitation. I will not lie. I have seen some very VERY significant growth in participants this time around. Not just growth in skill and technology but growth in mindset. From “I dont think this is for me and my classroom” to “I am ready to do this”!

I always provide opportunity for my teachers to give me feedback after each module and in an end of course survey. The narrative provided this time around were great and the comments reflected my work in facilitation.

End of Course Feedback from October-December 2014 cohort.

Improvements needed – my reflections

1. Somewhere in Module 1 or 2, I need to create a video about Moodle Design. I would hope this would eliminate the amount of adjusting/clean up participants would have to do in Mod 4. OR – better yet, maybe when I create their sandbox course – I only allow 2 or 3 topics. That way, they will try to keep unit materials under 1 topic.

2. Our district recently adopted the Marzano Framework for teaching. This course is very aligned to Domain 1, 2, and 3. I need to take some time and align the course to the framework, as well as ISTE and INACOL standards. I would like to try utilize outcomes in Moodle. If I could do standards based feedback/grading via Moodle – that would even be better. Word is @moodleshare may have figured this out!

3. I would like to add a few scales to my activities to help with clarity in assessing the learning artifacts. It is always important that my participants get opportunities to improve them. I really like the Moodle rubrics. Will I use those – or just a simple scale?

4. Give choice in reflections. Either allow participants to reflect with me 1:1 (Moodle activity) or allow them an option to create a blog and reflect to their own audience – submit link to me. I noticed one of my participants reflection improved significantly when the reflection went to our course discussion board in Mod 6. Makes me think – audience matters for some! I remember when I was in my masters courses and I loved LOVED blogging vs. private reflections.

5. Pay special focus with teachers in the as they are developing their units. As they begin creating tasks and resources – its important that I provide feedback on whether or not the resources and tasks are age appropriate. I would love to do cohorts of teachers in similar grade levels.

6. Consider either a module in copyright/fair use or adding an activity in Mod 2/3.

7. Add more relevant research in hybrid learning. When I first created – it was focused on online learning, I then readjusted to include flipped classroom. I believe “Blend/hybrid” is the best solution and need to find research to support it.

Is there such a thing as the “perfect” course? I doubt it. But I will do my best to conquer and build it! In the mean time, I am satisfied with the completion rate of Byron teachers (who voluntarily sign up) and the feedback they provide me to improve this course!

Last week after our #mnlead chat, I publicly promised (via Twitter) that I would try to carve at least 15 minutes each day to reflect on my learning as well as successes, challenges, and needs. While it didn’t quite work out to reflect each day – I decided to compile a weeks worth of learning in several posts.

Each day, I highlighted my thinking, challenges, successes, or new things I am learning. I have found it extremely valuable to think about my thinking and my own personal growth. I would like to try and keep this up on at least a weekly basis. Hope I can commit!

Did you know that schools in the state of MN can get a FREE site license for ESRI ArcGIS? Today (Friday) a couple of my teachers and I sat down with a rep from MDE and a GIS Analyst to discuss how we can adopt GIS (Geographic Information Systems) into our classrooms. I never realized how powerful mapping can be and how applicable it is across the disciplines! Check out this website (http://connected.esri.com/) to learn more how teachers and students are utlizing the tool! And they even have an iPad version/apps to support learning on the GO! You can also visit MDE’s website to learn more about the initiative.

Communicating Globally in Special Ed – Thursday was such a fun day. @amberaslakson invited me into her classroom to observe her kids interviewing kids from Canada via Skype. They are doing a book study with the canadians with the book The 14th Goldfish. They have been collaborating with kids via Edmodo and were ready to go live with a skype convo. Something happened and the skype never occurred but I did enjoy my time interviewing the kids. They were incredibly excited to share and my favorite moment was when one 6th grade student piped up and said – “Blog, I love to Blog. Its my favorite thing to do.” These kids have had numerous skype discussions with kids all over the globe in @amberaslakson class and it shows. I observed these kids had a deep understanding in communication etiquette in technology communication (whether online discussion board, responses to blogs, or skyping live). This skill is incredibly invinvaluabled will take the a long way!!! Way to go!

Not your Momma’s PE Class – Our HS PE class was recognized for innovating and personalizing physical education when our local news crew (KTTC) came for a 1 hour observation/interview. This is a teacher led initiative and I am amazed at how far they have come in just 2 years. Please take some time to watch the video – its just one way they are transforming PE. I have also learned they are integrating iPads and ePortfolios as new forms of assessment.

One thing that resonated with me after a 1:1 conversation with a PE teacher, was how our district’s vision set the stage for these teachers taking it upon themselves to innovate in their program. They also took action when our superintendent stood up in front of the entire staff and said we should not be afraid of failure. So many things are unknown when you begin to transform your classroom, school, district. I am so thankful they took some risks as it is benefiting our students! THANK YOU!

Observing iPad use in classrooms – Next Tuesday, Nov 18, teachers from Rochester Public Schools will be coming over to Byron to observe the integration of iPads to support learning and teaching in our MS/HS classrooms. I sent out an All Call for teachers to sign up for the event. Boy – did my teachers represent! Here is our list. Our teachers definitely doing some amazing things…and this is a great opportunity for me to learn from them. My take away – I think I will take this opportunity and go on a tour of these classrooms as well. CANT WAIT!